The director takes us to a trip to the castles of the Loire ,from the fortresses bold of the Middle-Ages (Chinon,which was destroyed by Richelieu,Langeais,Angers) to the exquisite Châteaux Renaissance (Chenonceaux: the Dames' castle,Azay -Le -Rideau and its reflection in the river Indre ,Cheverny and its gardens " A la Française" ,not forgetting the castles which came between such as Amboise and Blois .Miss Varda ends her trip to the Loire in a less famous mysterious castle . Written by dbdumonteil
Agnes Varda's first documentary short, on the chateaux of the Loire in France, was commissioned by the French Tourist Bureau; she used the commission
imaginatively to cut her teeth on documentary filmmaking. Only a third of the movie actually focuses on the chateaux. She gets interested in amateur
painters in the area, in gardeners and groundskeepers, on funny names of
small towns on the Loire, and on fashion models looking terrific against the
backdrop of the beautiful historic palaces. Varda was a successful
photographer when she took up filmmaking in 1954, and her visual aesthetic is exquisite in this film. Lots of wordplay in the voiceover commentary, and
playing/punning with words and images, will hopefully be translated and
available someday to English-speakers.